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[justcolleen]

[Bindair Dundat]

[guest of Japan]

Dear TEF_LON,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

I have no desire you refute your beliefs because your beliefs in no way appear to be harmful to others, or carelessly made.

I will say that I am technically in the "them" catagory, and as such either will not or cannot believe some of your contentions. I do feel that your your polarization of the parties involved seems a bit simplistic and in striking contrast to the other ideas you expressed.

I'm also a bit pensive in regards to your feeling that Islam can only be judged by those who profess belief in it. I'm pensive because "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Those who are to be given the responsibility to interpret and judge will tend to make judgements that reinforce their own positions. The conservative clerics in Iran come to mind as I write this. It would seem that the only way to insure that the best judgements are made is if there is a balance of power between the competing interests. Forgive me, I know this is very American of me.

Again, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

[Bindair Dundat]

[Bindair Dundat]

[usool]

Dear BD

In the US many people carry or have firearms at home. In Europe this is not the case. In the US people carry firearms because of a specific culture. This culture forces people who would normally not carry firearms or keep them to do so out of a concern for their safety. Yet these same people if they were to live in Europe would not dream of ever buying a gun and have no desire to do so. The fact that, say, a single woman in the US buys a gun and keeps it is not because she wants to perhaps but because the culture is such that she is forced to do that.

What we, as Muslims desire, is to create an international status quo away from mass weapons that do not distinguish between military and civilian personnel. These weapons were invented by the secular Jedeo-Christian west etc and as Muslims we dont like them. The fact that Muslim countries now have these same weapons is similar to the people in the example above who carry arms not out of a wish to do so but because the culture forces them to so. What we seek is to alter the culture so it is no longer acceptable for politicians to order young men and women to fly planes over cities and drop bombs on faceless people. If we change this, then less civilians will die, more militray casulties will be suffered and politicians may think twice about going to war. At the moment its all too easy.

As for the other examples you gave then as Muslims we cant defend the actions of a group of people like Al-Qaeda whose leadership was trained by the CIA. We condemn him and the CIA for this.

As for the Israeli issue then I believe it has been answered earlier in this thread but as a point to note when the US went into Afghanistan after 9/11 more than 20,000 civilians were killed. I dont think the US has any problems with killing civilians in pursuit of military objectives and as such am unclear as to why they would be offended by suicide operations in Israel. Is the killing of children by dropping bombs on their heads in Afghanistan somehow closer to goodness than suicuide missions? Perhaps you can clarify this line of thinking for us.

Best wishes and as always kind Regards